The protracted struggle for control of the Obong of Calabar throne has reached a head as stern-faced police officers have blocked access to the chambers of the Cross River State Traditional Rulers’ Council of Chiefs, which is located next to the governor’s office.
The threatening officials are allegedly preventing Etubom Anthony Ani, a former minister of finance and the claimant to the Efik throne, from accessing the door.
Ani served as a minister in the administration of the late General Sani Abacha.
The site was also closed off to about 18 paramount chiefs from the 18 LGAs who had come to support Etubom Ani as the new Obong of Calabar.
The chairman of the state Traditional Rulers Council, Etenyin Etim Okon Edet, was to receive Etubom Ani, who had been acclaimed the Obong of Calabar-elect by his own camp, together with the other 17 paramount rulers in the state, on Friday morning at the council rooms.
Even government employees were unable to enter their numerous offices in the nearby Ministry of Finance complex due to the early arrival of armed police officers who barred the main gate.
They chose not to explain why they were preventing the former minister acess to the palace.
If the event had been approved, the state government would have taken a stand and openly endorsed Etubom Ani, according to sources close to the state governor.
According to another source, Etubom Ani’s planned news conferences as well as his trips to meet with all of the paramount rulers in their domains have also been postponed.
Ani has adamantly maintained that he is the legally recognized Obong of Calabar, claiming that he ‘won’ the case proceedings to that effect at the High Court, Appeal, and Supreme Court about the 15-year dispute and followed the top court’s instructions.
